To begin, I really appreciate Mythri Jegathesan’s narrative style. Some ethnographies have been difficult to read, but due to the simplistic language it makes these difficult concepts and issues easier to understand. Similarly, the use of imagery at the very beginning allows the reader to be drawn into the ethnography, and it creates an interest in the rest of the book.

Also, I was intrigued by the analysis of the word coolie. As someone who has not had much exposure to linguistic anthropology, I think this analysis of the word from various contexts complicated the understanding of singular word. Mythri Jegathesan spent significant time and became a part of the community. I know many have commented on the elders’ offering food to younger people as a sign of care, but I think it is important that she was offered food. It illustrates her role in the community and how she has been, at the least, somewhat accepted and welcomed within the community she is doing ethnographic research. In a similar manner, I think her study of the ur (I do not know how to do the bar above the u) is another example of linguistic anthropology. Through ethnography, she illustrates how ur will change based on positionality. All in all, I really enjoyed this reading, and I enjoyed seeing linguistic anthropology in action.